TOPSHOTS Shiite Muslim fighters, loyal to Iraqi Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, take part in a last combat training near the city of Najaf on August 23, 2014, before joining the government forces to fight Islamic State (IS) jihadists in the Jurf al-Sakhr area, south of Baghdad. Iraqi officials worked to calm soaring tensions after the killing of 70 people at a Sunni mosque, as Washington branded the beheading of an American journalist a "terrorist attack." AFP PHOTO / HAIDAR HAMDANI